Tip the Newsroom | Submit a Confidential News Tip

ObjectWire investigates matters of genuine public interest. To begin an investigation we need more than a vague concern. The stronger your tip, the faster and more thoroughly we can act on it. Anonymous tips are accepted, but named sources with supporting documentation allow us to move faster and publish more.

Before submitting, ask yourself: Is there a specific person, organization, or event at the center of this? Do you have documents, records, or direct knowledge? Is there a harm to the public, a community, or an identifiable group of people? If yes to all three, your tip is worth submitting.

The tips that result in published investigations typically have most of the following:

• First-hand knowledge — you witnessed it, participated in it, or have direct access to someone who did
• Supporting documents — contracts, emails, financial records, filings, photographs, or other physical evidence
• Specificity — named people, organizations, dates, dollar amounts, and locations
• A public interest angle — public money, public trust, public safety, or elected/appointed officials involved
• Corroboratable claims — something that can be verified through independent records or additional sources

Tips that are vague, entirely anonymous with no documents, or based on personal grievance without a public interest angle are harder to pursue. We will still log them, and if a pattern emerges from multiple tips on the same subject, we may initiate an investigation.

ObjectWire does not disclose source identities without explicit permission from the source. This commitment is unconditional for sources who request confidentiality at the time of submission. We do not negotiate source identities with subjects of stories, law enforcement, or legal counsel absent a valid court order.

Sources who provide information under a confidentiality agreement are referenced in published stories only as "a source with direct knowledge" or similar attribution that does not identify them. We do not include identifying details that could be traced back to a source's position, location, or access level without their approval.

If you are a whistleblower in an employment context, we recommend consulting an employment attorney before submission. ObjectWire can provide information about federal and Texas whistleblower protection statutes on request.

For tips involving significant personal risk, use the following practices to reduce your exposure before contacting us:

• Device — use a device not issued by your employer. Personal phone or personal computer only.
• Network — avoid your home WiFi or work network. Submit from a public network or cellular data not tied to your employer account.
• Email — use a new email address created for this purpose, not your personal or work email.
• Documents — strip metadata from PDFs and images before attaching. Free tools like ExifTool or Adobe Acrobat can do this.
• VPN — use a reputable VPN service to mask your IP address during submission.

For extremely sensitive matters, contact us via the consultation page and request a secure communication channel to be established before you transmit any documents.

Every tip received by ObjectWire is logged and reviewed by the editorial team within 5 business days. We evaluate the public interest angle, the quality of supporting evidence, and the feasibility of independent verification.

If we move forward with an investigation, a reporter will contact you via the channel you used to submit, or a secure channel we establish together. Not all tips result in a story. We do not publish tips that cannot be independently verified, regardless of how credible the source appears.

Subjects of investigations are always given an opportunity to respond before publication. Their response, or their refusal to respond, becomes part of the public record.

ObjectWire accepts documents, filings, financial records, photographs, and other materials relevant to matters of public interest. For full guidance on document submission, metadata stripping, and how we handle third-party records legally, visit the document review and FOIA page.

To begin a tip submission or request a secure channel, use the contact page. For our full investigative reporting process, see the investigative reporting overview.